MICROSCOPE is a French Space Agency mission that aims to test the Weak Equivalence Principle in space down to an accuracy of 10−15. This is two orders of magnitude better than the current constraints, which will allow us to test General Relativity as well as theories beyond General Relativity which predict a possible Weak Equivalence Principle violation below 10−13. In this communication, we describe the MICROSCOPE mission, its measurement principle and instrument, and we give an update on its status. After a successful instrument's commissioning, MICROSCOPE is on track for on-schedule launch, expected in 2016.
@article{arxiv.1501.01644,
title = {Status of MICROSCOPE, a mission to test the Equivalence Principle in space},
author = {Joel Bergé and Pierre Touboul and Manuel Rodrigues},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.01644},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Proceedings of LISA Symposium X; accepted for publication in Journal of Physics: Conference Series